Vermithrax16

I will subscribe tomorrow, if it's cultural then it's a long slog but in the end demand talks and other stuff walks.... I am thinking that this has not been done before speaks to a larger issue that maybe is not being discussed?

I see folks here buying swords for 20k plus, I think $250 a year is doable. I agree, get a big subscriber base here in USA and they will be more receptive.

Is that per year or monthly? Either way, it's not onerous.

Same as the rest, but a nice start is The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords by Kokan Nagayama. I check it very often. Sesko material is amazing quality. I would recommend his Mei books (divided by era, if you only want one at a time) and I cannot stress the Genealogies and Schools of Japanese Swordsmiths enough (hint, hint) if you want to understand or quickly find out if an attribution even makes sense, or what generation of a smith you may be looking at. Happy hunting!

A huge reason why I love this forum, solid members looking out all the time.

This is great Jussi, thank you!

Is there an english write up or catalog of such blades online or in print so one can look at such blades?

Instant classic

Fascinating!

Along the lines of what we are discussing here, this sword at Aoi Art is a shinshinto blade and I am wondering if this is a typo or not. A Kasane of..... 0.93cm????? https://www.aoijapan.com/katana%EF%BC%9Asakuyo-bakkashi-hosokawa-masamori-tsukuru-kore-kokuinbunkyu-2nenn-inoshishi-rokugatsu-hi As of late there have been some typos, confused details on their listings, so not 100% sure. If this is correct that is the largest kasane measurement I have ever seen and must be an outlier, not a usual "at birth" size. I could be wrong of course!

Sure! I would be interested to see the numbers. If he could also take tight measurements that would be super bonus. Thanks Ken and good luck with the project.

Joe, thank you! Was hoping you would comment, I value your thoughts and input very much.

I went off on a tangent (I tend to do that.....) on the thread discussing the Bizen Unjo Juyo sword and I thought why not actually try and get some ideas. I often think about what one of these swords were like when the smith first completed his work. Specifically the width of the blade (thickness and blade width) and body niku when new. We all look at details like kasane and to me that is how I try to compare various blades of the same smith or era for how many times they have been polished or wear over time. Clearly this will vary for swords based on era made, school, and living thing variation (smith work varies). A top down picture of a blade showing the nakago vs the main sword body can tell something about how much metal has been lost though to be fair in examples I have seen it has to be pretty bad to be able to see it clearly, at least from pictures. Maybe someone has an old swordmaker journal that notated this? I know the old length descriptions are known. So what were the sizes of swords at birth? There are a few examples where I think it's clear the sword is almost pristine and we can learn from those special "miracles" as to what the original dimensions were. For example we all discussed the Nagayuki Juyo sword ( https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-nagayuki-oite-settsu-koku-saku-korenbthk-24th-tokubetsu-juyo-paper ) which is a Kanbun era sword, an era I often look at. Other more knowledgeable members can point out other examples. More experienced members may know but I would love to know how much metal is lost during a good polish. What about a bad one? How many can be done? This subject fascinates me even though I know all we can deal with now is what is in front of us today.

Agree, if my life depended on a pin placement then who cares about a crest! I made the thread as a "huh" sort of thing and as a collector on the hunt of this school and this smith, this invalidates this sword to me. I could spin it as "this family sword was needed in battle but had loose fittings and was refit to make a proper war sword". But the Aoi Mon is gone.

What I tried to say, but Joe does it way better than me!

Erick, my fellow Bawstonian, all anyone said on this thread is that the sword is a hand made sword but that it's providence is hard to tell. Is it Nosyudo made? Maybe. I don't know much about shinken/gendaito swords (I don't know much about antiques to be fair) but just from the nakago pics and the Nosyudo site it's hard to say it's made by that forge. If you got a live hand made blade, even from China, with solid fittings that can cut for $2000 that's not a bad place to be.

Joe, I know there could be reasons but I mean, come on! Destroy the mon for any reason to me really hurts the sword. Sword is listed as ubu, so I have no idea: http://www.Japanese-sword-katana.jp/katana/1710-1070.htm

How did I miss this thread!!!! Amazing!

There are so many other weird things about this listing as well. It is Hozon papered. No idea why the tsuka was moved all the way up this far (nakago listed as ubu) as to need this hole over the unique engraving of this maker. As it's a school and smith I love, it's especially annoying!

So a nice Yasutsugu Aoi Mon sword needed a second mekugi hole. Guess where it went......... I give up

Looks like hada to me from the pictures, think you are good.

WAY off topic, but if someone would like to try a though example based on schools, it might be great exercise. What was the kasane and niku of a sword from a given era, given smith at time of forging? This fascinates me to no end. With so very few "children" blades out there often I think of this.

Nice! Glad too see more New Englanders!

Gonna need you to expound on this, would be interested in story for sure! DM if you want.

Wow, that thin? Would love to see a width picture.